Monday, January 24, 2011

I decided I should probably document our first christmas as a married couple

before I forget everything! Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love decorating for it.

I began purchasing items of Etsy months ahead of time to prepare for the most wonderful time of the year! I was so excited to have our own little home to decorate.

Our first stop was finding our Christmas tree. We did not have an artificial one yet and thought about getting a real tree. We went to Lowes and decided to buy an artificial and use it year after year. I absolutely love it! Its pre-lit and beautiful! I cant wait to put it up every year!

The rest of the decorations I either bought off Etsy, handmade, or purchased from a local store. I love all of them and cant wait to add to them next year!!

On Christmas Eve's Eve :) we stayed at Charlie's parents house. I love Christmas Eve because its the last day before it all ends. Its the last day of the hustle and bustle: shopping, cooking, wrapping... I just love it! Not to mention its the day we got engaged two years ago! Anyway we stayed the night there and had so much fun just being with family. We woke up to an amazing Kringle Cake that Tippins sent us for Christmas and it was super yummy!! We ate the entire thing for breakfast!

We lounged around a bit and then I went over to my parents house to go shopping with my dad.

Each year we do something to help another family in the area at christmas time and this year Dad decided to get some presents for the people at the local Nursing Home.

It is one of my favorite things that we do at Christmas as a family.

I cannot wait to keep the tradition alive with my own family in the future.

We went all around town and mixed in with the other last minute shoppers, i really loved it!

The only place I did not love was WalMart........suuuuper crowded. (duh..)

We got all of our goodies and brought them home to put into their bags.

We finished just in time for Christmas Eve Service.

Charlie met back up at our house and off we went to Church.

The Christmas Eve service is always so amazing. In our town there is a show that local singers are in and some of them go to my church.

On Christmas Eve they sing and we look so forward to it each year.

Tangena is one of the people who sings at the service, she also sang at our wedding and it was just beautiful. Her and her daughter sang at the christmas eve service this year and it was AMAZING! My sister and I always freak out when she sings because we feel like she is a celebrity!

This is from last year, isnt little Sadie soooo cute!!!

We then went back to Charlie's parents house for Christmas Eve dinner. My parents, sister and grandparents all came as well to celebrate. We had an amazing dinner! Charlie's mom always decorates sooo pretty for Christmas.

After dinner we opened presents with Charlie's family.

It was neat to be able to spend time opening presents with them.

It was fun to see their traditions and how they were similar to my families (thank the Lord!).

After we finished up with presents we went back to my house and opened our Christmas Eve jammies!

We got in them and charlie, my sis, and I all cuddled up and watched youtube videos! The best way to spend Christmas Eve!!

The next morning we woke up to Santa and all of the wonderful gifts.

We had soo much fun opening presents and just being together as a family.

After lunch we took all of the gift bags over to the Nursing Home.

My dad had sooo much fun handing them out to everyone.

They were all so kind and gracious.

It was a blessing for all of us to go and visit them on Christmas Day.

We went back to Charlie's house and opened our stockings and found the pickle on the tree!

His mom hides a pickle shaped ornament on the tree and we have to search for it. Whoever finds it gets a special prize. Charlie claims to win every year so I thought I would give him a run for his money.

We all searched and searched for literally 15 minutes until of course Charlie found it...

He won all of the change his parents collected for the year!!!!! Awesome prize and even more awesome that I get to share in the wealth even though I didn't win!

We had a fabulous Christmas spending time with both families.

We are so lucky to live so close and experience Christmas with both of them!

A southern girl who is finding out what life, marriage and motherhood is like with her childhood sweetheart and sweet baby girl. We are learning each day the importance of life, love, friendship and what it means to "dance in the rain".